


Picking up the Pieces (of her)

by Trufreak89



Category: Teenage Bounty Hunters
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, April tries to fix things, F/F, Post Season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:41:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25921489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trufreak89/pseuds/Trufreak89
Summary: Post Season 1 finale. Sterling is falling apart and April tries to put her together again.
Relationships: Sterling Wesley / April Stevens
Comments: 27
Kudos: 686





	Picking up the Pieces (of her)

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a one-shot I had to get down after I finished binge-watching the show at 6am this morning! General spoilers for the first season, so don't read it if you haven't finished watching it yet!

April Stevens steeled her nerves for the task at hand. She could do this. She’d faced far more daunting situations in the past and she had prevailed - Just last month she had attended a Model UN conference held at a _public_ school of all places.

April could do this.

It wasn’t like she was going to a third world country to minister - which she had done the previous summer - though it certainly felt like venturing on foreign ground. April held her head high, shoulders squared, and took the plunge. She rang the Wesley’s doorbell.

It was late Wednesday afternoon and neither of the Wesley twins had been back to school since the previous weekend’s lock-in. Sterling had ignored all of April’s calls and texts and emails, leaving her no choice but to seek her out in person.

She adjusted the strap of her purse on her shoulder, and then promptly scolded herself. Ladies don't fidget. April rang the bell a second time and crossed her arms over her chest. A figure appeared behind the frosted glass of the front door and she felt her throat tighten. It wasn’t Sterling who answered, but Blair. April had hoped to avoid the older twin altogether, but it seemed like the good Lord had other plans for her.

“What do you want?” Blair demanded, wearing a perpetual scowl as she stared the shorter girl down. Blair’s disdain was nothing new. April swept it off like a bug on the windshield of her Lexus.

She tilted her chin and squared her jaw, looking Blair straight in the eyes. April Stevens was no push over. “I’m here to see Sterling.”

“She’s not taking visitors.” Blair made a move to shut the door in her face, but April wasn’t about to let that happen. She pushed past the twin, inviting herself in.

“What the fuck? Get out!”

“No.” April stuck to her guns, decorum be damned. “Not until I speak to Sterling!”

“Haven’t you done enough?” Blair growled at her, her voice laced with genuine hatred. Her words were like a physical blow to April. She felt the sharp prick of tears in her eyes, but refused to let them fall.

“I need to speak to her, Blair! Neither of you have been in school, she’s not answering my texts and I’m going out of my mind with worry… I need to know she’s okay.” April hadn’t meant for all that to come out in such a whine, but it was the truth. She was terrified something bad had happened to Sterling; something worse than April’s rejection, anyway.

“She’s not.” Said Blair, her anger disappearing. She brushed her hair back from her face with a sigh, and April really took notice of her for the first time. Blair looked like crap. She wasn’t wearing makeup and her hair appeared limp and unwashed. Her eyes were framed with dark circles, making it look like she hadn’t slept in a week. Her stark admission did nothing to settle April’s fears.

Blair turned and walked off, heading for the stairs. She stopped when she realised April wasn’t following her. “Are you coming or what?” April swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded stiffly. Blair led her upstairs and stopped outside a closed door. “Good luck getting her to talk you.” With that, she turned and disappeared into her own room, leaving April alone in the hallway and staring at Sterling’s closed door.  
  
It felt like a metaphor for their relationship.

Taking a deep breath, April knocked. She didn’t wait for an answer before stepping inside. The room was shrouded in darkness despite the early hour. Sterling’s curtains were drawn, with only a thin sliver of light poking through where they met in the middle.

The room was more disorganised than April expected from the other girl. There were clothes scattered on the floor and books and papers all over the desk; but what drew April’s attention the most was the lump curled up on the bed.

Sterling was lying with the comforter wrapped around her like a cocoon, her head buried under a pillow. “I said I wasn’t hungry, Blair.” She croaked out, her voice raw and gravelly. She sniffled like she’d been crying.

“It’s not Blair.”

Sterling sat up abruptly at the sound of April’s voice. She’d tied her dirty blonde hair up in a messy bun, strands of it sticking out at all angles. Like her sister, Sterling looked terrible.

“What are you doing here?” She demanded, her expression as welcoming as Blair’s had been at the door. April tried not to take it personally. It wasn't like she expected - or deserved - a warm welcome. 

“I was worried. I can’t remember the last time you missed three days of class.” April kept her posture stiff and her hands clenched in front of her. She needed to stay strong for both their sake’s.

Sterling flopped back onto the bed, burying herself in the comforter like a tortoise withdrawing to its shell. “I’m fine.”

“I can see that. You’re clearly living your best life, Wesley.” Old habits died hard, and the sarcastic retort slipped out without April’s permission. At least it got Sterling’s attention.

“Fuck you, April!” Sterling sat back up, her eyes burning with something close to hatred as she spat the profanity at the other girl. April had never heard Sterling curse before. It was like hearing Father Christmas wasn’t real for the first time. April’s carefully crafted reality shattered around her.

“I’m sorry…” She said, knowing it could never be enough. Her father had said sorry to April and her mother when the police arrested him for assaulting a sex worker. It had changed nothing. It hadn’t undone what he did, nor stopped April from being filled with even more shame than she was already.

The irony.  
  
Her father was an adulterer and an abuser who hit women, but she was the sinner for loving the wrong kind of person - sure. In her heart, April knew she was right with God. If she were to die tomorrow and meet St Peter at the pearly gates, then she wasn’t afraid to be judged. Loving someone was not a sin.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be as brave as you, Sterling.”

“I’m not brave.” The other girl let out a snort, somewhere between a laugh and a sob, and wiped at her eyes. “I’m not anything. Not anymore.”

“Sterl.” April stepped closer to the bed, her facade crumbling as she reached out for the other girl. Sterling pulled away from her, pulling her knees up to her chest as April took a seat on the edge of her bed. A week ago she would have been overjoyed to have April Stevens in her bed, but so much had changed since then.

“You’re the strongest, bravest person I know, Sterling Wesley!” April snapped. She took another chance at reaching for her, taking Sterlings hands in her own and squeezing them tight. “And anyone who says otherwise is just plain wrong! Whatever is going on, God never gives us more than we can handle-”

The floodgates broke at that moment as Sterling burst into tears and flung herself forward, wrapping her arms around April and burying her face in her shoulder. April shuddered, her body having its usual reaction to Sterling Wesley being so close. One touch and she was back in the fifth grade all over again.

April held the other girl, stroking Sterling’s hair while letting her cry. Minutes passed before Sterling pulled herself together enough to pull away. She wiped at her eyes again with a sheepish apology. “I’m sorry, April. I just… I can’t deal with all of this… I feel so alone-”

“Hey, look at me.” April took Sterling’s face between her hands. “You are not alone, Sterling. I’m here. And… I’m sorry I can’t be out and proud - not even for you - but that doesn’t mean I can’t be there for you. That I don’t care… because I do.” April inched her head forward, softly bringing their mouths together. Sterling didn’t pull away, but she didn’t kiss back either.

When April finally pulled back Sterling was staring at her with those big blue eyes of hers. There was a reason Ezekiel called her the ‘white girl with the eyes’. April loved them. She loved every last thing about Sterling Wesley - though nothing short of The Rapture would ever make her admit it out loud.

“Tell me what’s going on, Sterling. Let me help.”

“You can’t. Nobody can… not even God.” Sterling shook her head from side to side. She slumped back against her headboard but took hold of one of April’s hands, playing with her fingers as she fought back a fresh wave of tears. “My whole damn life is a lie!”

April wasn’t sure what had happened since the lock-in that would make her say such a thing, but she knew Sterling’s tears were about far more than April’s rejection. She couldn’t fix the broken girl before her, but she could be there to help put the pieces together.

April could be strong enough for both of them. She cupped Sterling’s cheek like she had in the arcade, all of her feelings laid bare in a single expression. “Not everything. God’s love for you isn’t a lie and… and how I feel about you isn’t a lie either. Let me in, Sterling. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Everything.” Sterling cried out, and then she told her every terrible thing that had happened with her Mom and her ‘aunt’, and getting kidnapped and the horrible, ugly, truth that she wasn’t a twin - that she and Blair weren’t even sisters.

“Hey, no, don’t say that!” April held the sobbing girl tight as they lay on the bed together. “Blair is your sister! Your obnoxious, mildly infuriating and far too codependent, sister. That hasn’t changed, Sterling! Blair still loves you, and that won’t _ever_ change!”

“Thank you.” Sterling rolled over, burying her face in the smaller girl’s chest. “Thank you for being here.”

“Always.”


End file.
